


Fair Winds And Following Seas

by colormenavy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Just you wait - Freeform, M/M, Merman Lance, alternative universe, angst is to come, just you wait friends, klance, marine biologist keith, mermaid allura, merman coran, merman hunk, pidge is just pidge, shiro used to surf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 14:40:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12014898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colormenavy/pseuds/colormenavy
Summary: Keith's life had always been linked to the high seas.His parents died there, leaving him as the only survivor of a shipwreck.Shiro lost his right arm following the flow of a wave.But Keith remembers blue lights.When he drives away into the ocean after having (not really) dropped out of college he doesn't expect to find those blue lights again.He doesn't expect the experiences and discoverings that come next.He doesn't expect to fall in love with a merman named Lance.He has no idea what torture it truly is to be drowning.





	Fair Winds And Following Seas

[chapter art](http://cirerart.tumblr.com/post/165041624963/httpsarchiveofourownorgchapters27190791showcomme)

 

_ before _

 

Waves. Up and down. High and low. Sky to land. The movements were drastic. Rapid and violent.

Sea and sky were equals. Waves mixed with pouring rain. Everything was moving. Erratic spins. Waves crashing and thunderbolts echoing.

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see. He was shaking. His parents were screaming. Their desperate words turned into noises. Sound. It all became sound. Sound. Just sound. The moving stopped. Sound. Nothing but sound. Sound. Sound only, sound only.

Until sound faded into silence.

And with silence came the void.

But in the void there was a blue light. In the light there was a boy.

And then the void vanished into nothingness.

 

* * *

 

_then_

 

Waves. Back and forth. Always coming back faithfully. The soft breeze carried their tranquil serenade. Always the same. Back and forth. Faithful.

 

Keith walked the seashore line.

The ocean wide at the reach of his fingertips, calling. Back and forth. Faithful.  But his ankles were tied to the sand.

Too many memories had been written on seafoam, none of them warm.

Nonetheless, he wanted to replace them. He wanted to feel the way waves did far away from the shore. Untamable and free. Wild. Eternal as the wind. Alive. He wanted to explore and find himself.

Drown his past in the waves that destroyed him.

 

Drowning, that was where everything ended and began. Keith couldn’t swim.

That didn’t stop him from racing against the waves and air currents.

Keith kicked at the sand on his feet. The grains falling soundlessly, blown away by the wind.

He threw his head backwards with an exasperated groan.

He wasn’t entirely dropping out, Shiro had overreacted.

He was going to come back; just not now. Not this semester. But he was going to and he would pick up where he had left off then. Just not now.

Besides, it was summer. Nobody went to class willingly on summer.

Despite it being marine biology.

 

A lone cloud crossed the sunsetting sky.

 

Keith wasn’t thinking but he made up his mind. There was no point in pouting and complaining.

Shiro had overreacted, he had scolded him as if he was throwing his life away. Shiro always managed to do that without lashing out. He always treated Keith like some duckling who needed protection.

Keith grabbed the keys to Red, his jet ski. (“Very original.” “Shut up, Shiro.”), and ran to where he had her tied. Keys jiggling and steps rushed. Brain empty.

Shiro had overreacted and Keith wasn’t thinking.

He drove away.

 

 

 

Before he knew, he was lost. He had no idea how long he had driven for.

Wind, sea and himself had become equals. Three different states of the same element. Mixing and pulling. Threatening and surpassing. Time after time. Again and again.

It was dark. The only thing guiding him was the light of his vehicle.

There was only water. There were only waves. And there was the wind, blowing harder as the night only but fell.

A full satin moon shone above his head, dressed in her tunic of diamond-like stars.

She seemed to be resting on some tall rock.

Keith turned to it. Light bulbs illuminated what looked like an entrance. A cave.

It was too late, too dark, too windy to head back to the shore.

He didn’t have much of a choice.

He drove up to it.

 

Unexpectedly, it was cold. A curved hollow rock with holes. There was nowhere to tie Red up to, but there was enough dry space for him to lie on, enough to put Red on too.

 

He rested with his head against the rocky walls. The water inside the cave was calm, the enclosure silencing its unrested twin outside.

It was almost like a lullaby, the sound.

Keith gripped his jacket tightly and closed his eyes.

 

 

He jerked awake when he felt something tugging at his hair. Before he could make out a shape there was a splash on the water.

The cave was empty, completely void except for him and his bike.

But there was something blue in the water.

In the void there was a blue light.

A head came out of it, brown wet hair sticking onto the tanned forehead, glowing blue eyes stared back at Keith.

And in the light there was a boy.

He moved closer to where Keith was. Curious glowing eyes scanning him with mischief. He pulled himself higher when he touched the edge of the rocky floor. His whole face was on sight now. His nose was pointy and his smile shared the same expression of his eyes. This one glowed with interest. Everything about him shone, the mysterious boy was a fiery a beacon.

He rested his chin on his hands.

His shoulders were painted with scales, like freckles, like stars. He just watched Keith.

His hands, slender and thin, ended in sharp nails. His fingers laced together by a translucent webbing. He just watched Keith.

Under his eyes decorating his cheeks, and over his arms up to the back of his hands he had arrow points of blue light.

His teeth were too sharp to be human. His ears like fins.

He just watched Keith.

Keith just watched him.

Then water hit Keith’s face and the cave grew brighter. When he blinked his eyes open he saw the mysterious boy laughing.

His laugh was as little human as he looked. It sounded eternal, it carried time. It was a high pitched collection of long notes, squeaks and clicks.

When he saw Keith frowning at him his laughter became a childish smile, this time with no teeth. He tilted his head to the side and fluttered his eyelashes at him. Humming.

The fins of a tail came out behind him and sank back onto the water. A slow movement he began to repeat. Faithful.

 

 

 _Not this guy again._ Keith’s subconscious always ended coming back to him. Ever since that night. Long ago, the night his parents died and he survived. He should have gone with them. Everyone says so. But they found him alive. Safe and sound on land. Everyone knows the conditions of the storm couldn’t have possibly let anyone see the clear of morning again. Everyone says it was a miracle.

Keith believed it was the boy in the water. It couldn’t be, he knew. What he thought he saw that night was just caused by the rattling of the waves. Just  distorted unclear images. But he looked so similar. He had changed, he had grown, but Keith was so sure it was him.

Both of them had, Keith was seven at the time; and judging by how the other looked, he was too.

Still, there was no way mermaids were real. Just a poor excuse for sailors not to take the blame and embarrassment of sinking their ships. Just a poor excuse for them to explain unexplained tragedies.

Keith had tried to get _him_ out of his mind ever since he gained consciousness about the subject. Because there was no way mermaids were real. There was no way.

But there he was, the boy in the water, the boy who saved Keith’s life, moving his tail faithfully as the movement of waves.

And he was just watching Keith.

“Holy _shitballs_.”

The boy arched his brows and pointed to Keith.

“Shit… balls?” He asked confused, his words soaked in a really peculiar accent.

“No, I’m not….” Keith waved his hands in front of him. “I’m… Keith” He said laying his hand on his chest.

“Keef?”

“No, not Keef, _Keith”_

The boy looked at Keith’s eyes, brows furrowed, focused.

“... _Keef”_

Keith sighed. He hid his face on his hands.

“I can’t believe this is happening”

The boy blinked.

“You don’t understand a word I’m saying do you?”

The boy smiled at him sheepishly, and whistled, confirming his suspicions.

“Alright,” he said and pointed to himself “ _Keith”_

_“Keef”_

_“_ Yeah okay whatever, and you…?” then he pointed at the other boy, who was busy playing with Keith’s toes. Keith laughed with a huff.

“You haven’t seen these much around, right, buddy?” He took off his flip flops and sunk his feet on the water. The merboy followed them. Then he felt sudden pain in his toes.

“ _Ah!_ That hurt, you fishshit.” He said with a hint of betrayal.

 

“Fishshit! He repeated coming out of the water. He shook his head “Fishshit.” He pointed at himself and emitted a sound similar to his laugh. His name? He pointed at his toes. “Fishshit?”

 

“Oh! No, no!” He answered “Toes”

He stretched his toes and the eyes of the boy glowered in awe. Like literally lit up...The cave became bluer.

“Toes.” He repeated. “Keef toes.” He partly pulled his tail out of the water and pointed at it. Clicks and squeaks, his name, clicks and squeaks.

 

He raised a brow and pointed at himself again, testing him.

“I can’t pronounce your name.”

He pouted and repeated it.

“I can’t-” Keith groaned and made a talking sign with his hand then a no one.

The boy’s pout deepened, he started playing with Keith’s toes again. Petting them, moving them.

Keith tried to make out the shape of his tail in the water. Comparing what he knew about fish anatomy to what was before his eyes. He had dorsal, adipose and caudal fins. Some of his scales glowed. The lights changed, always blue.

“Can I take a proper glance at you tail?”

Blue lights. “Lance.” The boy repeated, smiling, nodding. “Lance.”

Keith mirrored his smile. With much flatter teeth, though.

“Hello, Lance.”

“Hell...o? Keef.”

There he was, the boy in the light. The light in the void.

It was him, it was Lance. He was real.

Not a mirage, not a miracle.

It was Lance. And he was real.

**Author's Note:**

> The amazing art is be the wonderful  cirerart   
> This story is as mine as it is hers. This fic is a collab between the two of us.  
> ////  
> We have a lot planned for this, you have no idea.  
> Feel free to comment your opinions, or if you wanna start some sort of war there... I'm not gonna stop you. Just gonna watch it all happen with a bowl of cereal and try not to pick sides.  
> Anyway, thank you so much for taking your time and reading this. It really means a lot.  
> Once again, thank you.


End file.
